Women presidents or prime ministers are not common in the world. The countries that have been with women head of state are less than fifty. The United States, the most powerful and democratic country in the world, has not had any female president yet. Different factors are responsible for this. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the factors that influence whether a country could have a female president and the factors contributing to the situation in the United States. The first factor to consider is population, which affects whether a country could have a female president to a small degree.
The social and economic gaps between male and female are the main determinants of whether a country will elect a female president or prime minister. Population of a country affects the disparities between men and women. High population increases the gap. Countries with high population are less likely to vote in a female president than the countries with a low population. If a country has the tendency to vote male leaders, a vast population will favor a male president or prime minister, as it would be harder to get a large number of people to switch to a female president or prime minister. Islamic is a sexist religion.
A country where the major religion is Islam is less likely to vote for a woman president. There is gender discrimination of women in the Islamic countries. The Islamic religion view men to be more superior to women. If a woman is competing for the post of a president or prime minister against a man, the man is more likely to succeed because of the notion that men are more superior. On the other hand, a country with a majority Christian is more likely to vote in v female president or prime minister. Christianity is a more tolerant religon as compared to Islamic.
Christianity emphasizes on the equality of genders and second women to fight for Presidency. On the contrary, she will not face discrimination based on gender as in the case of Islamic. The number of countries that have elected a female president or prime minister and the majority are Muslims are only five in number, which explains the reasons above. The major religion in a country is a critical determinant of whether a female president or prime minister wins.
A country with higher GDP/capita is more likely to vote for a female president or prime minister than a country with lower GDP/capita. In a country with a higher GDP/capita, the economic imbalance between men and women is narrowing whereas in a country with low GDP/capita the gap is large. The realization of empowerment of women is easier in a country with higher GDP/capita than country with low GDP/capita. With the empowerment of women, the society will tend to treat men and women equally. A country with low GDP/capita lacks capacity to empowerment women to the extent that women’s voice is suppressed if it is an Islamic country like Afaghanstan.
A country with lower GDP/capita is less likely to vote for a woman since female are considered to be inferior to men.The degree that Life expectancy of a country affects whether a female president or prime minister wins is small. A country with higher expectancy is more likely to vote for a female president than a country with a lower life expectancy. A country with a higher life expectancy is more likely to have more women in the population who are more likely to vote in a female president or prime minister.
The other factor that might affect the voting of a female president is the history of a coountry. A country with a history of voting in a male president or prime minster is less likely to vote in a female president. Another factor is the political orientation of a nation and its ideologies, for example, feminism. If a country supports feminism, it is more likely to vote in a female president or prime minister. The constitution of a country is also another factor.
Some constitutions are not favorable for women leaders; in these countries, women are less likely to be presidents or prime minister. The reasons why US have not had any female president are three. First, there is no party that has ever run a female candidate for the presidency in the US. Secondly, women have been enjoying the rights to work for a few decades. United States, therefore, has not adapted to seeing women in high government positions. The third point that contributes to the issue is tradition; Americans have a habit of electing males to the powerful positions in the government.
The Americans then fear the consequences that might arise with deviating from the tradition. There is a presumption that women are deficient in decision-making. America being the super power, it requires a president who is able to develop critical and intelligent decisions. The decisions made by the president affect the whole world. Americans fear that women lack these qualities leading to poor decisions. Poor decisions might have huge negative impacts on the world.
Conclusion The factors that influence an election of a female president are population, major religion of a country, the history of a country, the constitution, GDP/capita, and life expectancy of a country. Some of the factors are the reasons why America has not had any woman president yet.
